Colombian darter characin

Striped Headstander

Winterbottoms headstander

Equator hero cichlid

Ecuador Cichlid

Meta Cichlid

Red-eye Tetra

Oscar

Yellow plankton cichlid

Cardinal tetra

Gulper Catfish

Common Whiptail Catfish

Oscar

Facts

Latin

Astronotus ocellatus

Size

46 cm

Food

Fish, crustaceans and worms

Habitat

Rivers

IUCN

Not evaluated

Location

Northern South America Our fish are caught in the Itaya River in Peru

Map

Peacock spot on the tail

The oscar has dark stripes on its body, dark dorsal and anal fins and an orange-black peacock spot (eyespot) on its caudal fin. The spot looks like a real eye. When a predator attacks the cichlid, the eyespot confuses the predator because it cannot figure out where the cichlid's head is.

Home is a stone

Cichlids prepare themselves well to become parents. This is particularly true for the oscar and the Rio Grande cichlid: first, the cichlid cleans a stone, rock or tree root. The female then deposits her eggs on the flattened surface, one at a time, and the male swims across the eggs and fertilises them. Both parents fiercely defend the eggs until they hatch.

Protective parents

When the cichlid offspring hatch from their eggs, they are highly vulnerable to being eaten by other fish. For this reason, they stick together in groups and their parents do whatever they can to defend the group. But they have a lot to do: If a young cichlid gets too far away, one of the parents takes it into its mouth and spits it back into the group.

A hump on the head

In some species, the male oscar develops a prominent forehead hump, called the nuchal hump. It is thought that the hump is used to impress female oscars as well as other males.

Where does our fish come from

Our Oscar cichlids came from Peru. They are trapped in the Nanay River.